Settled In / Sort Of

Since my last update, I have actually moved in and been living here for almost two weeks. There have not been any major changes since my last post have made some progress in a few areas:

1. Refrigerator: In an effort to save money, I'm trying to cook more meals at home which required a fridge. After realizing how much new fridges cost, I found a nice used model for sale that works just fine and has an ice maker to boot. However, in my search for a fridge I realized just how small appliances were back in the 1950's and this unit (which is pretty small) just barely fits in the space. I'm not sure what kind of options I will have going forward for a larger fridge or will I have to redo the kitchen cabinetry. Picture of the fridge below.

From 100NCD60

2. Electrical: This falls into the category of necessary evil upgrades on 50+ year old home... My electrician was great and made some key updates including grounding multiple outlets, installing new outlets in key areas, and running CAT-5E for ATT Uverse. The big benefit for me is being able to put some of my electrical equipment in the right places in the house. In the living room I will hide all of my AV gear in this built in cabinet and have no visible cables at all. I will have a similar setup in my master bedroom.

Setup Now

From 100NCD60

Where Everything But TV Will Go

From 100NCD60

Below are a few pictures of how the house looks right now:

From 100NCD60

Family Room (Need To Do Flooring / Any Suggestions?)

From 100NCD60

Master Bedroom (Platform Frame For Bed To Come)

From 100NCD60

From 100NCD60

Backyard (Rye Grass Is Growing Like Wildfire)

More updates to come...

Floors and Fences

Two of the big projects I needed to complete prior to moving in were to refinish the hardwood floors (big mess) and fix the old falling down fence (dog). As of Monday, January 4th both projects are done and I'm happy with the results. Below are some pictures of the finished product.

From 100NCD60

From 100NCD60

From 100NCD60

From 100NCD60

2010 Update

It's a new year and time for the first of what will be many posts in 2010.

Prior to closing on the house I knew there was an issue with the sewer line for the kitchen which was going to require repair. Old cast iron plumbing tends to deteriorate over 50+ years and if not repaired can cause some foundation shifting which would be very bad... Replacing the sewer line requires digging under the foundation and a pretty big trench to lay the new pipe. Due to some unexpected surprise it was a little more expensive and took longer than I had hoped but the company did a great job. Pictures of the work in progress are below:

From 100NCD60

From 100NCD60

One of the other projects planned was the flooring which I did not plan to mess with until living there for a few months. However, after talking to several people I was informed that refinishing hardwood floors makes a huge mess and I should do it before moving in. Here are a few pictures of the work in progress:

From 100NCD60

Removing the cork floors in the family room

From 100NCD60

Sanded floors in the formal living with a few stain options

From 100NCD60

Sanded floors in the master bedroom

Finally, a couple of weeks ago my Godfather, Craig, was nice enough to help me get some rye grass started in the backyard and it is coming in nicely. Give it a couple more weeks and I should have nice lush green backyard in the middle of winter.

From 100NCD60